Death Penalty Closure

Does the death penalty provide closure for the families of the victims? It has long been ingrained in society that the answer is yes. Closure is a main standing point for many who argue for the death penalty. Those people argue that the execution is justice, an eye for an eye. They claim the families find healing when they see another person die. While their logic applies to only a few families, it most assuredly does not apply to all of them. The closure pro death penalty advocates might be seeing is the closure of the case, not the family 's ' well-being. The families of murder victims are put through trials and hearings before they can rest and grieve. The families might feel a small sense of relief when the murderer is executed but it typically doesn’t last long. Many families who have seen their family members murderer get executed feel guilty afterward, and find they needed to forgive rather than forget through another murder. There’s also a whole group of people who don’t have any representation through these trials and court dates; the families of the murderers.
A murder victim’s family experiences pain for months, if not years after the victim’s death. The grieving process is longened by countless trials which become a constant …show more content…
When a murderer gets sentenced to death, forgiveness is often put aside. Where forgiveness should be, revenge starts to grow and prosper. The death penalty is cultivating these families’ need for revenge. CNN has an article written by the Jason Marsh titled ‘Does death penalty bring closure?’ The article includes families speaking out about the death penalty’s effect on them and finishes with the necessity of forgiveness. Loren Toussaint is quoted saying, “It 's [forgiveness] an act of transformative empowerment ... that allows someone to move forward.” [3] People harbor this spite and anger towards the murderer which disallows them to move forward in